I don't get how paid clicks is still up (or at least stable) despite the huge growth in usage in LLMs over the past 2 years. I get that some categories of usage of LLMs is additive / doesn't overlap with what you would use search for, but surely a large part of LLM usage must cannibalize search usage as well..? The numbers imply that it doesn't and I'm not really sure why.
Most paid clicks come from people who are actually trying to do something like buy shoes, book a flight, whatever. That kind of intent is still way better served by regular search than by chatting with an LLM. No one's asking LLMs where to buy running shoes and then clicking on an ad to check out, they're just Googling it. Plus, GOOG been smart about weaving AI into search without screwing up the ad side. The AI Overviews still leave plenty of space for ads so the money machine keeps humming along, for now. It's still early but for now this stuff isn't getting cannibalized yet. LLMs are amazing for research and finding info but when it comes to commerce intended search GOOG is still king.
I don't get how paid clicks is still up (or at least stable) despite the huge growth in usage in LLMs over the past 2 years. I get that some categories of usage of LLMs is additive / doesn't overlap with what you would use search for, but surely a large part of LLM usage must cannibalize search usage as well..? The numbers imply that it doesn't and I'm not really sure why.
Most paid clicks come from people who are actually trying to do something like buy shoes, book a flight, whatever. That kind of intent is still way better served by regular search than by chatting with an LLM. No one's asking LLMs where to buy running shoes and then clicking on an ad to check out, they're just Googling it. Plus, GOOG been smart about weaving AI into search without screwing up the ad side. The AI Overviews still leave plenty of space for ads so the money machine keeps humming along, for now. It's still early but for now this stuff isn't getting cannibalized yet. LLMs are amazing for research and finding info but when it comes to commerce intended search GOOG is still king.
Makes sense. Shopping AI is coming though.